The End of Deponia
by sonicking2004
Summary: "I've told myself to not tempt endings, but when I had a chance to go back and save the life of my beloved Rufus I had to try, the result of which was I just had to watch him die again. Now some kid comes along offering me another chance to save him, but can I put myself through that again? Can I let the opportunity pass? My name is Goal, this is my star-crossed story."


**Another Chance **

Goal looked across the waters to the ruins of Elysium, a gigantic weight settled in her chest. It wasn't the loss of her former home that was causing her this pain however. Nor was it those who had lost their lives when it fell from the heavens, as she never had made any friends while she was there. Even her father, who was the only Elysian she felt any attachment to, even his loss paled in comparison to the one who had never set foot on those pearly grounds.

Rufus had spent much of his life envying those who lived in Elysium's shining spires as well as much of his adult life coming up with schemes to try and get there. It was one such scheme that first brought him into Goal's life back when she was surveying Deponia together with her then-fiancee Cletus to see if it was inhabited. Since then they had embarked on a number of adventures together, and even though there had been a couple of disagreements or misunderstandings that threatened to divide them, as time went on Rufus became someone Goal couldn't imagine herself living without.

Unfortunately, by the time she realized that she truly loved him she found herself facing an impossible quandary. The High-boat about to fall, one of its rotors held still by Rufus, Argus and Cletus whom had managed to fall in after one of them (Rufus she assumed) had dove in to destroy the transmitter and prevent it from sending the signal to the blast towers to destroy Deponia. Since it took all three of them to stop the blade from spinning, any one of them letting go (or her pulling that one out of there) would result in the others getting shredded by it. The problem was that since all of them were disguised as Cletus, and since they apparently they were all clones made from the same batch of DNA, it was impossible for her to tell them apart. It didn't help matters that all three of them were trying to convince her that they were Rufus so that she would save them instead. However, that is until Rufus decided to break the stalemate and save her from dying with the rest of them by convincing her that Cletus was him. To prevent her from second guessing the choice, Rufus forced her to save Cletus by relinquishing his grip and taking the long, fatal fall back down to Deponia.

For the next couple of years she had to pretend that Cletus was Rufus, and that time was the most miserable she can remember ever enduring in her life, made even more so as she had to fake being happy. Mercifully Cletus had figured out early on that his act wasn't actually fooling her, and he didn't make her pretend when they were alone, allowing her that time to grieve her beloved. Unfortunately Cletus's ideas for saving Elysium were even worse than any scheme Rufus had ever come up with, with less than half of them being workable in reality, so it was just a matter of time before Elysium's degrading orbit reached a critical point. As her home started to break up during the re-entry Cletus was one of the first fatalities, though he surprised her by saving a few people before perishing himself.

Just when things seemed their bleakest, however, Rufus showed up to save her. It wasn't the Rufus she'd come to love, though, but rather a version of him that came from before they had met that arrived in a time machine. Even though he seemed to have some memories of them being together from his future (her past) Goal felt no affection for him. Therefore she didn't feel too bad about stealing the time machine from him and his companion (she couldn't remember the guy's name) and leave them behind. After setting up a mechanism to lower the pod through a portal generated beneath it, Goal traveled back to the moment Rufus sacrificed himself, catching him before he could fall too far.

Before she could pull him inside, however, a couple of jerks in an elephant costume demanded that she let Rufus fall "like he was supposed to" or else they would cut the rope and send her falling to her death with him. Goal was convinced that they were bluffing, but past Rufus (who somehow, somewhen had hidden in the back of the pod) assured them both that the elephant people were not. He told them that if she didn't let go that they would indeed cut the rope, that Goal would instead be the one who died in the fall and that her Rufus, in his despair at being the last survivor on a lifeless, Fewlock overrun Deponia would choose to end it all by activating the blast towers and destroying the planet. This was enough to convince her Rufus to tell her to let him go, that nothing mattered more to him than her survival. It was painful for her to do it, like she was literally ripping her heart out of her chest, but she could find an effective argument to counter with so she told him goodbye and let him go.

After pulling her back up, the elephant people destroyed her stolen pod and used their own to drop her off at Deponia back in the time she originally left from. Though they apparently had the technology to erase her memory of her knowledge of them and her attempt to alter the course of history they chose not to, reasoning that without knowledge of her failure she'd likely attempt to do so again. Part of her wishes that they had done so, for the memory of losing Rufus twice, the knowledge that it was her own hesitation to follow her heart and pick the right Rufus to save back at the High-boat that cost him his life, threatened to tear her heart in two. So she remained standing where they left her long after they departed, watching as Elysium crashed into the sea, the smoke coming off it thinning out and vanishing as the blazed from reentry were extinguished, and finally the remaining survivors making their way to shore in what lifeboats they were able to pull together.

After an eternity, during which the thought crossed her mind that Rufus would be very disappointed at seeing her apparently giving up, Goal took a deep breath, resolving to find something to do with the rest of her life. Maybe she would help the Elysian survivors adapt to living here on Deponia? Before she could take a single step in any direction, however, Goal felt a strange crackling in the air, even though there wasn't a single storm cloud in the sky. As she looked around for the source, Goal her as strange gaseous popping sound followed by another, then she was sent flying as a third even louder pop was accompanied by a shockwave that knocked the wind out of her as it knocked her off her feet and into some bushes behind her. As she sat back up and tried to get her wits together, Goal froze at the strange sight before her. Floating in the air above the cliff was a vehicle of the sort she had only ever seen in textbooks or rusting in the piles of junk that made up the landscape of Deponia. This one, however, looked relatively new. Also, instead of resting on its rubber-tired wheels those wheels looked to be rotated horizontally and some sort of thrusting force looked to be coming out of the center of them.

Looking through the vehicle's windows Goal saw a young man sitting behind the steering mechanism. He looked relatively handsome, perhaps more so than Rufus, but even if her heart wasn't still raw and aching from just losing Rufus the simple fact was that she felt no attraction towards this stranger. As she watched the young man leaned over towards the door on her side, which opened upwards, before he hollered "Get in!" When Goal didn't move the young man yelled again, "We've gotta go now, Goal, before those hypocrites notice something's off and decide to swing back!"

Taken aback by the fact that this person she was certain she never met before seemed to know her name, Goal stammered, "Who...who are you?"

"My name doesn't matter," the young man told her, sounding harried, "Look, do you want to save your boyfriend or not?"

"Rufus?" Goal asked, not wanting to let hope enter her heart again just so it could totally destroy it.

"If we're gonna get back there and save him before those Utopians find a way to stop us then we have to go now!" the young man told her as he held his hand out to her.

Goal wanted to tell this boy (which is what he looked more and more like to her) exactly what she thought of his proposal, that she wasn't down for being set up to watch Rufus die for a third time. Yet even even as she was thinking this Goal found herself taking the offered hand, allowing him to help her in as she closed the door behind her. "You best fasten your seatbelt," the boy told her, indicating the strap and metal buckle set on either side of her. As she worked out how to put them together, Goal saw the boy rapidly type something into the number pad set between them, then when he hit enter Goal saw the day and time Rufus threw himself from the High-boat appear on a display above it in the area that read "DESTINATION TIME". Once she had her strap fastened Goal felt herself lurching backwards as the vehicle shot forwards at incredible speed. As the vehicle began to climb upwards at the same rate of speed, Goal noticed a smaller display set before the window with a number that was rapidly increasing. Then once that display read "88" a series of light flashes shot out in front of the vehicle where they exploded into brilliance.

After the light show was over and Goal could see clearly again she noticed that it was darker outside then when it was earlier at sunrise, but otherwise she didn't see much difference around her as the boy slowed to a stop, hovering at such an extreme angle that Goal would have been sliding into the boy were it not for the restraining strap holding her in place. Then she looked out the window on her side and saw a faint pinkish glow far above her. It took Goal only a moment to realize that glow was from the portal her earlier self had created to save Rufus, where the elephant people were giving her the ultimatum to make her let him go. "I think that you had better get your door open now," the boy advised her. Goal nodded her understanding as she reached over to pull the handle, causing the door to lift open with a mechanical whine. Soon after the glow in the sky vanished, and seconds later Goal was able to make out the sound of Rufus's screaming as a speck in the sky quickly grew larger and more recognizable. Much too quickly, Goal realized, and she informed the boy, "Rufus in coming in much too fast! If he doesn't make the opening he'll break his neck and get killed, and even if he does he might still die and end up killing one or both of us as well!"

The boy stared at her, a dawning look in his eyes, as he said, "You're right!" Then he turned the key, and the sounds of the engine behind them silenced and Goal felt a pulling in her stomach as the vehicle began to fall.

"What are you doing?!" Goal yelled in a panic.

"I turned off the hover engine!" the boy hollered back, "That should equalize the speed between us and allow you to safely pull Rufus in quickly before we end up slamming into the ground!"

Goal nodded that she understood his meaning, then she leaned as far out the door as her belt would allow, stretching her hand out to Rufus as he finally saw her clearly and exclaimed in surprise, "Goal?!"

"I'm here, Rufus!" Goal yelled back, "Please, grab my hand!"

"Not again, Goal!" Rufus countered, "Those guys will hurt you to stop you!"

"I'd like to see them try!" the boy yelled at him from his pilot's seat.

"Who the heck is that?!" Rufus asked over the sound of the rushing wind.

"He's here to help!" Goal answered for him, "Now please grab my hand before we all die!"

That apparently was enough incentive for Rufus, and he gripped her hand without further hesitation. No sooner had he done so, however, than a pinkish portal opened a short distance above him and a time pod came out of it in a barely controlled fall. The pod's front hatch opened then, and Goal saw the ones who interfered last time once again wearing that ridiculous costume and pointing some sort of weapon at her as the one in the front end exclaimed, "You again?! You just can't help yourself, can you girl?"

"I'm not about to apologize for loving Rufus!" Goal yelled back defiantly.

"You...you love me?!" Rufus asked in surprise.

"Not the time, Rufus!" Goal replied tautly.

"Quiet!" the front end interloper commanded, "You have to the count of klobitch to let the boy go and get that umux out of here before I blow the lot of you into Phlumoqux."

"We'll see about that!" the boy next to her said confidently. When he twisted the key, however, Goal only heard a grinding sound, and the boy's face fell as he said in shock and dismay, "What?! No!" The boy twisted the key again, and when a similar grinding sound was heard he yelled in a panicked tone, "Not now!"

"Ongo!" their pursuer yelled.

"You have to let me go, Goal!" Rufus yelled at her, "Otherwise they'll kill you!"

"Bongo!" the elephant man called out.

"I'm not letting out die again, Rufus!" Goal hollered back before calling over her shoulder, "Kid?!"

"I'm working on it!" the kid called back as he continued to turn the key in futility.

"Shynx!" the costumed interloper called out.

"The ground is getting awfully close, Kugo!" the one in the costume's rear end said nervously, "Maybe we should just let them fall and..."

"Stop distracting me, Rolax!" the one called Kugo retorted as he turned back and said, "Double-Shynx!"

"Kid!" Goal and Rufus yelled at the same time.

"Aaaahhh!" the kid yelled in frustration as he hit his head on the steering mechanism, at which moment the engine in the vehicle's rear roared to life. After releasing a chuckle of surprise and relief, the kid then stomped the pedal under his right foot to the floor, which caused the vehicle to stop falling and shoot forward. As a result Rufus came flying in through the entrance past Goal and landed in the vehicle's rear seating area, the door swinging shut behind him. The maneuver apparently caught their pursuers by surprise as well, as they shot past them and was barely able to pull out of their dive and avoid plowing into the Rust Red Sea. As she saw in the mirror on the vehicle's side the duo resume their pursuit Goal told the kid, "They're following us!"

"Not for much longer!" the kid told her as he entered a new date into the key pad. Goal didn't know what the significance of the date was, but it seemed to be set back in Deponia's distant past. Then she looked back at the side mirror and saw that the duo had abandoned the ruse and separated the costume into its two halves. Goal saw that underneath they were still rather pachydermish in appearance, though not nearly as pink (what prompted them to pick that color for their costume anyway?) Goal didn't have much to think about that, though, as she noticed that Rolax was manning the pod's flight stick while Kugo was aiming his weapon just before the kid's vehicle's time-travel mechanism kicked in. When the blinding light cleared again Goal saw the largest building outside of Elysium looming before them.

"Aaahhh!" the three of them screamed together as the kid desperately spun the wheel to avoid crashing into it. As they adjusted their course to fly over a busy roadway lined on either side by similar buildings Goal half asked-half yelled, "Just what was that?! Where are we?!"

"Not where...when," the kid corrected her, "We're still on Deponia, we just traveled back to a point before it came to be known as such. At this time civilization on your world was at its peak, but so was its destructive wastefulness. A few was able to foresee that this trend would not end well for them and they tride hard to get the others to change their ways, but those entreaties were soundly ignored, the end result being the Deponia you know."

"But why would they do that?" Goal asked in disbelief, "Who would willingly choose to destroy their own world like that?"

"A number of different reasons," the kid informed her, "For some it was simple greed, but for most it was that they just didn't want to be inconvenienced, preferring to avoid taking the harder path changing their lifestyle would put them on."

"You're kidding me!" Rufus almost yelled, "They'd rather turn their world into a dump, to literally live in garbage than to be 'inconvenienced'?"

"They deluded themselves into believing it wouldn't end that way," the kid explained, "For a time it was 'out of sight, out of mind', but it was only a matter of time before..."

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as Goal heard the telltale hum of the timepod's portal opening, and she looked in the mirror and saw their pod emerging from it. "You've got to be kidding!" the kid yelled in exasperation, "Those Utopians are a determined lot, aren't they?"

Goal gripped her belt tightly as the kid made a sharp left turn a maneuver the Utopian's pod was apparently not able to match as they had to make a huge looping u-turn in order to get back on their trail. "Did you say that they were Utopians?" Rufus asked him.

"I did and they are, the last surviving Utopians after Elysium's crashing into it wiped out all life on their world," the kid told them as he entered a new date on the keypad.

"Say what?!" Goal yelled, shocked at this news. The kid wasn't paying attention, however, as he said, "Okay then, let's see what kind of mileage they got on that thing!" He then started accelerating to the speed that Goal figured out activates their vehicle's time-traveling function. She couldn't even tell what time they were travelling to this time around, as the "Destination Time" was now shown in incomprehensible symbols. Once they arrived, however, Goal could tell they had traveled a great distance once again. Below them was neither fields of garbage nor the towering buildings of civilization but rather untamed wilderness as far as the eye could see.

"Where, or rather when are we now?" Goal asked the kid, who answered, "We're still on Deponia, but we're now in an area predating recorded history, before there were even people around who could record such things."

As he spoke Goal heard a screech and she she looked up to see them heading towards a large, leathery-winged creature with a long beak, and she couldn't help but let out a scream that her companions echoed as the kid swerved to avoid it.

"WHAT WAS THAT THING?!" Rufus yelled as he tried to catch his breath.

"Pteranodon," the kid told him, "one of a species of creatures that served as the top of the food chain in this time. Let's just be glad that the DeLorean doesn't smell like anything that it would consider prey."

Looking in the side mirror again, Goal saw the Utopians emerge from another portal behind them, their pod clipping the wing of the Pteranodon behind them and sending it spiraling down into the jungle below. Shortly after the pod's door opened and Kugo started opening fire on them. "Damn! Those boys must be real pissed to be getting sloppy like that. Hang on guys!" The kid then took the DeLorean down low, skimming the tops of the tallest trees, and the Utopians followed after them. As the kid wove their path back and forth to avoid the Utpoian's blasts, a loud alarm buzzer began to go off along with a flashing red light on the dash, prompting Goal to ask, "What happened?"

"That last time jump exhausted the last of the fusionable materials," the kid told her, "My hands are full so I need you to hit the switch on your side of the console to kick in the emergency nuclear reserves. Otherwise we'll be stuck here until either they get a lucky shot or we run out of gas and become a sitting duck!"

Goal moved the upper part of her belt aside so that she could bend over to find that switch, and she felt Rufus's eyes on her (probably wishing he could be more help to them right now.) She was able to find it rather quickly, however, and when she sat back up she felt her breath freeze as she laid her eyes on a nightmarish sight. Towering before them was a huge creature whose large mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth could almost swallow this vehicle whole. The small, clawed feet set just below that head looked comically useless, but with the toothy maw, its large taloned feet, and its long and muscular tail Goal doubted that any creature capable of laughing would be doing so for very long. Goal doubted that if she looked back on this moment, when the creature roared, that she would not be ashamed to say that she screamed in unison with her companions. Fortunately the kid was able to dodge the monster's colossal bite, the maneuver also resulting in the Utopian's blast missing them and hitting the creature in the face. Goal wasn't sure what that would have done to them but it only served to piss the creature off, it expressing that displeasure with a roar and a swing of that massive tail that visible damaged the timepod and sent it spiraling away from them.

"Serves them right!" the kid remarked as he entered a new date into the keypad, "And now for one last jump!" Fortunately Goal was able to read what date they were traveling to this time, but she had to wonder if this was the last time jump why were they traveling 60 years into her future? Once the DeLorean had reached the desired speed and made the jump she had even more questions as the landscape was no different than the one they had left the Utopians behind in. Still the DeLorean slowed to a stop immediately after the jump, then it sank to a gentle landing as the kid called out, "Last stop! Everyone out!"

Goal and Rufus did as the kid said, and Goal took note that the wheels had rotated into a vertical orientation and were now supporting the vehicle's weight. Still, as she looked around she was filled with dread and doubt, imagining one of those creatures coming out of the brush and ripping them apart. "Sorry kid, but something seems to be wrong with your machine," Goal said, her voice on edge, "This place looks nothing like...WHAT IS THAT?!"

When Rufus turned to see what Goal was looking at his jaw fell open, and to be frank Goal couldn't blame him. Jutting out in the middle of the dense jungle, yet looking all the world like they belonged there, were a cluster of majestic ivory towers. At first they looked like they might have been the towers of Elysium itself, but as Goal continued to stare at them it became apparent that they were not. The arrangement of them was all wrong, and there were too many of them. In fact, judging by the glow she saw in that direction, the city that lay in that direction must have been at least three times larger than Elysium if not more so.

"Is this...could we be on...?" Rufus tried to ask Goal, but his shock was stealing his words. Goal was able to gather what he was trying to say, however, and though she was rather flabbergasted herself she was able to respond, "Could be, though I don't really see how."

"Hello? Who are you people?" Goal heard a familiar voice ask, and turning to look she saw that the face that went with is was just as familiar. Apparently Rufus found it to be even more familiar as his tone soured as he grumped, "Oh great, Toni's here. Guess that shoots down THAT theory!"

The young woman, who did indeed look very much like Rufus's ex-girlfriend Toni, looked at them very curiously and asked, "You know my grandmother?"

Rufus and Goal's jaw dropped at this revelation, and Goal exclaimed, "Toni is your _grandmother?! _"

The young woman nodded and said, "My name is Roll. My mom named me after Rufus and Goal, the two heroes who gave their lives to save this world."

Rufus and Goal looked at each other before Rufus looked back at Roll and asked, "They _both _died?"

"Not at the same time, but yeah," Roll told them, "According to Grandma, Rufus and Goal launched themselves up to the High-boat in order to stop Argus and the Organon from destroying Deponia. After destroying the transmitter, Rufus sacrificed himself to ensure that Goal and Cletus would survive and return to Elysium to tell them about us so they wouldn't go and try destroying out world again. Then, when Elysium started to fall, Goal and Cletus put their lives on the line to save as many Elysians as they could. Of course considering how they were lost during Elysium's crash their bodies were never recovered, the fact that they have not turned up in all this time could only mean that they are dead. Of course Grandma refuses to believe it, says that Rufus is still alive out there, waiting for her to let her guard down to scare the bejesus out of her."

"So your Grandma Toni is still alive?" Goal asked her.

"Yeah," Roll confirmed, "She says that she refuses to tie until Rufus 'gets tired of his childish game of hide-and-seek and shows his face so she can thank him properly."

"The stubbornness certainly sounds like her, but I can't imagine her ever thanking me no matter what," Rufus said to Goal.

Roll looked back and forth between Rufus and Goal as she said in confusion, "Huh? What are you guys talking about?"

Before Goal could decide whether to tell Roll who they really were or to come up with some cover story she saw she saw a portal trying to open some distance away, the type that was created bu the Utopian's time pods. This one, however, seemed to be having a hard tome forming cleanly, flickering in and out of existence. Goal was wondering why they would be having such troubles now, but then she remembered how the Utopian's pod had tangled with that huge creature and taken damage. That plus the multiple jumps made between where she saved Rufus and now probably left their pod in bad shape and low on power. She heard a noise over by the DeLorean and she looked to see the kid standing up from where he'd been leaning against it then he walked over to them. Speaking up for the first time after they had just arrived here, the kid said, "About time. Here we go guys."

"I thought that big lizard had went and trashed them," Rufus said as he eyed the portal, which was glitching out less and less, with trepidation.

"The T-Rex critically damaged their pod, sure, and they probably used up a great deal of power to get away from it before it could destroy them, but they still should have enough for at least one more jump here," the kid informed them, looking eerily calm about this.

Goal glanced back at the DeLorean as she asked the kid, "Shouldn't we get out of here then?"

"Even if we had enough time to get enough fuel for Mr Fusion to find a new place to hide they would just make repairs and come after us again, and people might get hurt in the process," the kid told her, "No, Goal, the running stops here."

" 'Goal'?!" Roll half-asked, half-yelled in shock and surprise, "Wait, you guys aren't...?!"

Roll was cut off when the portal finally stabilized and the battered pod emerged, sparking and trailing smoke. As it landed the kid raised his hands over his head as he said, "Don't worry, I have a plan. Just follow my lead."

The pod's front hatch slowly opened with a sickly metallic squeal, and Goal, Rufus and Roll raised their hands like the kid before the Utopians inside could see them. Once it was open enough the still half-costumed Utopians emerged from the smoke-filled cockpit, coughing and sputtering until Kugo, doing his best to keep his weapon trained on them, was able to catch his breath enough to say, "You phuphnex...shmuogo...,snorffbtrobs! Do you have any idea what you have cost us?! We will make you pay for your resistance!" Kugo then pointed the weapon at Rufus as he said, "You will be fernungeled!" to Goal, "You will be subjected to the Shinshuma-Clux before being returned to your time!" then to the kid he said, "You will show us how to operate your Umux, and if you cooperate we will simply leave you here."

"Sorry, but that won't work," the kid told the Utopians, "The DeLorean wasn't exactly designed for creatures of your anatomical proportions to operate."

"No tricks, human!" Rolax said, looking rather menacing even without a weapon in hand.

"It's not a trick. The steering wheel would be hard enough for your mitts to try to work, but your fat fingers won't be able to enter the proper date and time on the keypad, and forget working the floor pedals with your huge feet," the kid explained to them, "But I would be more than happy to take you where you want to go."

"What?!" Goal yelled, feeling shocked and betrayed, "Why you...?!" Goal felt really like decking the kid regardless of the Utopians and their weapon, and Rufus must have sensed the same intent from her as he did his best to restrain her, until Goal saw the kid subtly wink at her and mouth the words (trust me).

The Utopians looked in suspicion between the kid and the rest of them before Kugo pointed the weapon at the kid as he warned, "You try anything, you take us anywhere we don't want to go, and we'll dump your moxopoxo out of the Umux and find a way to work it ourselves."

"Of course," the kid calmly agreed, "But before we go you should really take a look around you."

"That trick is older than your species is," Rolax told him, "and if you think that we're gonna fall for it..."

"Not a trick, I promise," the kid assured them, "Just really take stock of what you see, keeping in mind where and when we are."

The Utopians still looked suspicious, but Kugo kept his focus on everyone while Rolax did as the kid suggested until he asked in shock and disbelief, "What in the name of Xorphyx!? Are we on Utox?"

This got Kugo's attention, and Goal made ready to try and leap for his weapon until the kid shook his head 'no' as Kugo said to Rolax, "That's impossible. Where are the ynelock trees, the obitox birds? Where is Botrenox City and our puredeux? Besides the readout on our Umux said we should have arrived on the humans' Deponia a good xixardan gos after that girl changed that young man's fate!"

"But our Umux was badly damaged after that dargomex attacked us," Rolax argued with Kugo, "Maybe it sent us to the wrong time or place my mistake?"

"But then what is that human doing here?" Kugo asked, pointing at Roll, "There's no way that this could possibly be Umux as it was destroyed at this point in time."

"Perhaps I can settle this argument," the kid interjected, "This is indeed Deponia, 60 years after I helped Goal rescue Rufus."

"That can't be!" Rolax disagreed, pointing at Rufus, "Even when it wasn't being destroyed by that shmogo this world was dying. How can this world be looking like this now?"

"After Elysium crash-landed on Deponia, the Deponians helped the Elysians who survived salvage whatever of their technology they could, utilizing the junk that was all around them for replacement parts and raw materials for effecting repairs." the kid explained, "In effect they rediscovered the lost art of recycling. Utilizing the Elysians' technology they were able to filter the air and water and clean the soil, they used the Elysians' stock of seeds as well as whatever hibernating species they found during the clean-up process. Slowly but surely they worked together to make this world a better place to live for everyone. Eventually it wound up looking the way you see it now, and the residents wound up changing the name of this world from Deponia to New Utopia."

"Fascinating, but what does that have to do with anything?" Kugo asked irritably.

"I was pointing out that the Deponians, who were originally going to die along with this world, and the Elysians, who were planning on leaving it, chose to work together to save this world instead," the kid spelled out for them, "In other words Elysium was never launched towards Utopia, towards Utox..."

"...and our people are still alive there?" Rolax completed for him, a dawning look of realization on his face.

"Bingo!" the kid confirmed.

"That...that's good, but we still have to return those two to their proper place in time, to restore everything back to the way it was before we first came here," Kugo insisted though she could hear in the timbre of his voice that the kid had shaken his confidence.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" the kid asked them with a raised eyebrow, "You might end up undoing everything including your world's restoration, and isn't that the reason you came back to this world after your first 'sightseeing' expedition?"

"How do you kn..." Rolax started to ask, then he shook his head and said, "We only have your word that our world is back the way it was anyways."

"That and logical deduction, but I see your point," the kid conceded, "If it turns out that your world isn't the way you left it (or close enough at least) then you could just come back here to try again. Of course you're gonna want to be careful, as it was your meddling that caused the death of your world in the first place."

"That's impossible, we didn't even come back until after the change in the timestream left our world dead!" Kugo disagreed.

"That's the problem with time travel: when the root cause in the future affects the past you can see its effects even before you go to commit the action that sets it off," the kid told them, "The whole incident kicked off when Rufus woke up with memories of his future coming to him in a dream, including both when he died falling from the High-boat and when he lived to be Deponia's last human survivor only to blow up the planet himself. Those memories prompted Rufus to remember the bubble wrap that he forgot to wrap Toni's glasses in the first time around, the change which drew McChronicle back there where he accidentally destroyed the glasses himself. When they used McChronicle's time machine to try to stop him from doing so, you guys interfered by distracting Rufus. That led to them discovering your hideout and your time pod. They used to rescue Goal here from Elysium when it was crash-landing, which led to her taking it from them in order to saving this Rufus when he was falling from the High-boat. When you tried to stop her by cutting the rope she had lowered the pod with, not only did you fail to ensure that Rufus died in the fall like he originally had, but you wound up getting Goal killed instead and caused Deponia to become infested by Fewlocks when your crashed timepod started malfunctioning."

"What's a Fewlock," Roll asked, looking rather stunned by the sudden influx of information.

"Be glad you don't have to find out," the kid told her, then he turned back to the Utopians and said, "Anyway, with Goal killed in the fall and everyone else slaughtered by Fewlocks, Rufus had nothing left to live for, so he triggered the blast towers to bring everything to an end. This caused Elysium, which was designed to endure the blast of Deponia, to be shot off like a bullet towards Utox, killing everyone there. This also somehow caused McChronicle's time machine to get activated, resulting in past Rufus to get the memories of his future self and starting off this whole mess." When the kid finished the Utopians just stared at him saying nothing, so the kid summarized, "Don't you get it? Your attempt to stop Goal from saving Rufus ended up killing both Deponia and your world and wound up changing the course of history for everyone."

"You know, it makes a strange kind of sense," Rolax said to Kugo, who replied, "But if that's true then what do we do now?"

"If I might make a proposal, why don't you guys let me take you back to where your timepod exists from your previous trip to this world. I'm guessing that it has some sort of autopilot feature?" the kid asked them. When Kugo nodded yes the kid continued, "Then you could borrow it from your past selves while they are unaware, use it to return to your world, then send it back to them."

"But what about those two?" Kugo asked, pointing at Rufus and Goal.

"You could just leave them here," the kid suggested, "Even if you erased their memories before taking them back there's still the likelyhood that something will trigger those memories to come back. Human minds are kinda funny that way. Even worse they might get only a fragment of those memories back, which might prompt them to try and avert what those memories were warning them of. At least here, in a future that they're supposed to be dead in, at least they don't have and future memories or time machine to enable them to change the course of their world than any other resident here."

"I suppose that could work," Rolax said thoughtfully.

"How about you guys?" the kid asked Rufus and Goal, "Would you object to staying here rather than returning to your own time?"

Goal didn't even hesitate, looking at Rufus as she said, "As long as I get to remain with Rufus, anywhere is fine by me."

This prompts a smile from Rufus as he said, "i was originally planning living with Goal on Elysium, but I must admit that I like this idea even better. Besides, going back for me means that I die, so as long as my staying here doesn't result in Goal getting hurt or worse then I think I'd prefer sticking around here."

Rolax looked to Goal like he wanted to say something more, perhaps to apologize for the trouble he and his companion caused Rufus and herself, but Kugo cleared his throat and said, "Lets get going, Rolax, we've spent more than enough time on this infuriating planet."

Rolax nodded and said, "Let's go home. Stay out of trouble you two." Then he turned to join Kugo and the kid, the latter who had paused a moment to say, "You guys will need to take off those that ridiculous costume before getting in the DeLorean, though. It's gonna be a tight enough fit inside as it is."

"We can't just throw the costume away!" Kugo protested, "It's a rental!"

"I'll open the trunk, you can put it in there," the kid told him in response.

As the Utopians made their preparations for departure, Roll seemed to find her tongue again as she asked, "Are you guys really the Rufus and Goal Grandma Toni told me about?"

Rufus smiled wide at this, but he surprisingly took the more modest route of remaining silent, so Goal answered for them, "We are."

"Huh, looks like Grandma was right after all," Roll said thoughtfully, "Guess my brothers owe me three weeks of doing my chores for losing the bet."

"So you bet on us coming back, huh?" Rufus asked, a touch of his smugness coloring his voice.

"Bet on you, after everything Grandma told me about you? You've got to be kidding!" Roll replied, "No, I bet on Grandma. Despite how old she is now, how everyone was saying that her mind is going and that she was losing touch with reality, Grandma Toni has not been wrong yet."

Rufus looked rather disgruntled as he grumped, "Even 60 years later Toni is just as annoying as ever."

Goal couldn't help a small chuckle as she looked back over to the DeLorean. The Utopians looked rather uncomfortable hunched over in their seats as the Kid closed the trunk in the vehicle's front, then he looked up and said, "I guess we'll be taking off now. Take care of each other, okay?"

Goal met Rufus's eyes as be took her hand, then after sharing a smile with him she turned back to the kid and said, "We will, and...uh, sorry but I never got your name."

The kid smiled at her kindly as he said, "You can call me Marty."

Goal returned his smile and said, "Thank you Marty, for everything."

"You're welcome," Marty told her before he got into the Delorean and shut the door behind him. A moment later the engine roared to life, the DeLorean raising a couple of inches into the air before the wheels rotated back into a horizontal orientation. The vehicle then shot forward, heading out that way for a bit and climbing before looping around to head the opposite direction at a faster clip, vanishing some distance away directly overhead in an explosion of light and leaving a pair of fire of fire trails to continue on a short while longer. Then she looked over at Rufus who said, "Let's go home, Goal."

"Home," Goal agreed with a nod, then they followed Roll to the city peeking out of the jungle before them.


End file.
